1812 – War of 1812: Tecumseh’s Native American force ambushes Thomas Van Horne’s 200 Americans at Brownstown Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
1846 – Oregon territory divided between US & Britain at 49th parallel.
1861 – President Lincoln signs the first US personal Income Tax into law (3% of incomes over $800)
1864 – Battle of Mobile Bay, won by the Union Army led by Rear Admiral Farragut with the cry “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” (US Civil War)
1891 – World’s 1st traveler’s cheques issued (American Express)
1905 – First meeting of the Russian and Japanese peace commissioner take place in US President Theodore Roosevelt’s home at Oyster Bay, New York.
1914 – 1st electric traffic light installed in USA on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.
1924 – “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip by Harold Gray is 1st published in the New York Daily News.
1932 – Clyde Barrow and two associates kill Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, the first time the Barrow gang kills a lawman.
1944 – World War II: at around 11 A.M. during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts sending ash and lava miles into the sky.
1953 – Operation “Big Switch”, Korean War prisoner exchanged at Panmunjom.
1957 – Comic strip “Andy Capp” makes its debut.
1963 – Britain, USA and USSR sign nuclear test ban treaty.
1967 – Bobby Gentry releases her only hit “Ode to Billy Joe”
1981 – US President Reagan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers.
1986 – US Senate votes for SDI-project (“Star Wars”)
1992 – 4 cops in Rodney King beating case indicted on civil rights charge.
2011 – NASA launches its Juno space probe from Cape Canaveral to orbit and study Jupiter.
2014 – President Obama signs The Iron Dome Bill providing $225 million in additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense.